Ornament is the leading magazine celebrating wearable art. Explore jewelry, fashion, beads; contemporary, ancient and ethnographic.
Issue link: http://ornamentmagazine.epubxp.com/i/104373
"Some people create different things in their life, and to have the feeling that you're at the cutting edge of creating, well, you're epitomizing humanity. You're being what you're here to be. You're here to evolve, and to grow, and to be the best person, the best human animal that you can be in this world; and for me, creativity is at that cusp." The Irrepressible Spirit ustav reyes Patrick R. Benesh-Liu 38 ORNAMENT 36.2.2012 W ith the resoluteness of a true believer, Gustav Reyes's faith in the world resides in the creative experience. A self-taught artist and an entrepreneur, Reyes expresses through words and deeds what is needed to succeed in work and life; and like the trees which provide the raw material for his enchanting jewelry, Reyes's own life is filled with the rich complexity of branches and roots emanating from a single strong trunk. Reyes's father, a carpenter, made jewelry as a hobby; and while influenced by his father's involvement in the medium, his death when Reyes was eleven meant he was largely self-taught in the basic techniques. As a method of releasing pent-up energy, he immersed himself in creative efforts, building doll houses out of wood. "Not to play with them but just to build them—and my mother let me do it because it was a way for me to do something, without doing bad things or something negative; so she kind of encouraged what I did." The construction of these structures instilled in the young Reyes joy through the act of making. His creative path had been set in motion. Although he studied painting and drawing at the Art Institute of Chicago, his jewelrymaking skills were developed by practice, not through classes. His knowledge of wood initially developed from making furniture. His wife Juanita managed to provoke Reyes's curiosity for other uses of the material the day she asked whether making a wooden ring was possible. "I drilled out a piece of wood and shaped it, seconds later it would break because of the grain crossing the ring. So I dismissed it, but after letting me simmer a couple of days, she came back and asked, 'Can you bend wood?' I said, 'Yeah, but wood can only bend within certain tolerances, then it breaks.' 'But what if you get it thin enough?' she asked. Picking up a little piece of paper she started rolling it up and that's when it clicked." Now, Reyes makes wooden rings inspired by that day, taking a thin sheet of wood that has been soaked in water, rolling it up on itself with glue, binding the wood upon itself. Taping it, he then heats it to set the shape. ARC SERIES BROOCH of hickory, walnut, sterling silver, 6.35 x 1.27 x 12.7 centimeters, 2011. Photograph: Erin Beckman.